This isn't cuddling
by daccu65
Summary: There can be a fine line between logic, desire and thermodynamics.


_Dear Potential Reader._

 _The characters appearing in this tale are not mine, they belong to Rooster Teeth. I am merely borrowing them and will return them when finished. This tale is not intended to generate profit, but was written for the enjoyment of writing. That said, please enjoy..._

* * *

This wasn't cuddling.

No way, it was just keeping warm. Basic physics really, she was a small person, so her internal volume to surface area ratio was small. This meant that the same physics that allowed her to shed off the excess heat that her semblance generated also meant that she shed heat that she wanted to keep.

Jaune sighed; it seemed that despite being on different teams, he found himself paired up with Ruby an awful lot. First there was giving her the hand up at their first day at Beacon. When one of the two felt down, the other was there to prop them up. Their friendship meant that Teams RWBY and JNPR had always backed each other up. After the fall of Beacon, he was the first person she called for the trip to Mistral. When her uncle had been hurt, the two of them carried him through the lowlands to Kuroyuri. When the Mistralean Defense Force airships had found them, the two of them wound up on the same airship as Qrow. Now, the two of them were slogging through the mountains on Solitas.

It made sense, in an improbable-chain-of-events sort of way. They had to get to Atlas, but General Ironwood had closed the borders. Qrow could probably get in easily enough, even get Ironwood to let them in. However, Oscar told them that the idea was to keep this mission secretive and James Ironwood was never known for subtlety. It would be better to get everyone, and the relic, quietly into the Capital City before letting the general and headmaster know what was going on.

Getting into Mantle was easy enough; Atlas didn't keep close tabs on the lower-class city and Mistral was known for its less than law abiding citizens, so getting a smuggler to take them from Mistral to Mantle was just a matter of threats, knowledge and lien. Since Qrow had been pretty much everywhere, he was able to set up the trip and was certain that he could get them from Mantle to Atlas itself. The middle-aged huntsman wound up receiving a rude shock; General Ironwood had set an airtight patrol around Atlas and the underworld figures in Mantle wanted much larger bribes than the party was capable of paying to get through it. The party had to generate more lien, and that meant taking on some missions.

The smugglers and other members of the crime syndicates that ran Mantle needed work done and some of it was, surprisingly enough, not the sort that student huntsmen would turn up their noses at. The crime syndicates wanted to keep the grimm and bandits away from the "unofficial" mines outside of the city and they wanted to keep rival gangs and the more violent factions of the White Fang in check. They had the lien and the students had the skills. Oscar wanted the group to move fast, so they split up to take on multiple jobs.

Ren and Nora, former orphans who had dealt with the downtrodden in the past, took on a job to patrol around a couple of the wildcat mines. Blake and Sun took on a mission to infiltrate a local White Fang faction that made Adam Taurus look downright pacifist by comparison. Weiss was assigned a job to determine just how complicit the Schnee Dust Company was when it came to exploiting the working class in Mantle, freeing up Oscar and Qrow to look into some things that they wouldn't share with the students. This meant that Yang and Ruby, along with Jaune, were left with the mission to investigate some abandoned mining digs and see if a local bandit clan was using one of them as a base. Unpleasant work to be sure, but straightforward...until Weiss pointed out that Yang's arm wasn't rated to work in the low temperatures that would be found in the upper mountains, so the blonde brawler was re-assigned to provide Weiss with some additional muscle.

That should have clued them in. That, and the fact that Qrow and Weiss both insisted on dipping into their store of lien and provide him and Ruby with the best Winter gear available in Mantle. Jaune could only take some solace in the fact that Ruby was just as idiotic as he had been. The two of them had walked across first Saunus and then Anima, leaving in the dead of Winter! They understood cold weather operations and camping!

Wrong!

Day one wasn't bad, as they traveled from Mantle to the first mine on a couple of cargo trucks, accompanied by Ren and Nora. That night was cold; colder than they had experienced on the two southern continents, but the excellent gear they had more than compensated for the lower temperatures. However, when they left the active mines, and their friends behind, it had gotten steadily more cold as they climbed higher into the mountains. The day wasn't bad; aura protected them from the cold. It was when they made camp at night that they began to realize what they had agreed to.

Aura became inactive during sleep and they could only find enough firewood to cook their food. Even if they had the firewood, they wouldn't have dared to keep a fire burning after dark for fear of announcing their presence to potentially unfriendly folks in the area. Sure, Weiss had given them a local scanner to warn them of approaching people...and things...but it was better to remain incognito. The cold had woken him up twice that first night, compelling him to engage his aura long enough to warm up before going back to sleep. Upon waking up with the dawn, he realized that Ruby had had a rougher time of things. Still, the hot coffee and food made the two of them optimistic. That optimism faded as they climbed higher and it got still colder.

The day went well enough; they checked the first mine site (abandoned and derelict) and managed to get about halfway to the next site before the lowering sun prompted them to make camp again. They managed to finish their meal and get the fire out before the sun went down completely. After that, they set up their security scanner before crawling into the tent. Knowing that it was even colder tonight than it had been last night, he suggested that they attach their sleeping bags. Ruby gave him the odd look that he expected.

He pointed out that he had seven sisters; two of them younger than him, and that this was how they kept the smaller ones warm on cold camping trips. As soon as he told her that it would be warmer, Ruby was all for it. The bags were quickly attached and he crawled into the nest, lay on his side facing away from her and suggested she put her back up against his. It was obvious that it would be warmer for both of them, especially Ruby. Her quiet sigh of relief told him that it was a good idea...but that conviction didn't last very long.

Jaune wasn't an idiot and he wasn't blind. He was aware that Ruby was cute...actually pretty. However, she was a friend and teammate, they were too busy for _those_ type of thoughts and he wasn't about to put anyone, much less a close friend like Ruby, through the embarrassment that he had put Weiss through when he was crushing on her. The only problem was that it was cold out and she was pressing herself up against him to keep warm. The contact made it very obvious to him that while she was petite, she wasn't a little girl. The muscles in her buttocks were well developed, solid, and now pressed up against the small of his back. She had snaked one of her legs in between his, and he now recalled that those legs were very shapely.

 _Knock it off, Arc! She's cold, that's all! Besides that, she's not interested in you! She's not into boys! She's not interested in anything except weapons, training and completing this mission...like you should be! Think of her as your sister and get some sleep!_

In this case, the tiring day and less than adequate sleep from the previous night worked for him. He was warm, exhausted, and quickly asleep.

For all that he was a ridiculously deep sleeper, Jaune had a solid internal alarm clock. Minor poking and prodding wouldn't wake him from a deep sleep, but if he got a good look at his scroll or watch before going to sleep, he could pretty much wake up whenever he decided to. He opened his eyes roughly an hour before sunup and his first thought was that he was comfortably warm. His second thought was a lot less comforting. Apparently, Ruby had rolled over during the night and now it wasn't her backside pressed up against his back.

Last night, the feel of her rear end in the small of his back had been distracting. Now, what was pressed up against his upper back was even more distracting...and more proof that his companion was well past being a child. One of her arms had slipped around him, holding her close to him and one leg had slid between his.

 _Get over it, Arc! This is Ruby; the quirky girl who kills grimm and devours cookies! She's your friend! She's just cold and you're a warm body! Any body area she presses against you doesn't lose heat, which means the more body area against you, the warmer she is. That's why she's clinging to you. Her foot between your thighs is just more heat retention._

Fortified by his internal chastisement, he unzipped the bag and gently disentangled himself from his companion. She grumbled a little, an adorable sound of disappointment that severely tempted him to remain where he was at. However, the cold, predawn air helped him get control of his hormones. He slipped out of the bag, zipped his companion back in and noted that she quickly slithered over to take advantage of the warm spot he had left behind. Smiling a little at the adorable sight, he pulled on his boots and armor before crawling out of the tent to start the breakfast fire.

For all that the night had started and ended awkwardly for him, he had to admit that he had slept very well. The familiar routine of breaking camp took care of the awkwardness he felt around Ruby, and they were quickly on the move again, picking their pathway towards the next site. By mid-morning, he had rallied from his nervousness to the point that he was able to engage in their usual, joking conversations again. He noted that the cold weather had brought a bit of color to her face, and it made her even cuter than before.

 _Knock it off, Arc!_

The next mining site also proved to be deserted and derelict. The two conducted a perfunctory inspection, confirming that there were no new tracks in the snow and that the buildings hadn't been disturbed, before continuing on. By now, the normal routine had taken over, and Jaune had adjusted his thinking back to seeing Ruby as a teammate. They joked and speculated on what they would find when they finally got into Atlas as they trudged towards the next site. As per their earlier plans, they stopped and made camp roughly halfway between the two mining sites. The routine kept things comfortable for him, as they cleared a space for their tent, collected wood and started a fire. Dinner was cooked and eaten, the dishes cleaned, the scanner set up, but then things got awkward again.

It was time to sleep, and it was just as cold as it had been the previous two nights.

"Still cold," Ruby commented, with a bit of nervousness in her voice.

Great, he had managed to make things clumsy between the two of them.

"Yeah," he answered. "We can zip the bags together again," he suggested. Then, belatedly offered. "If you're more comfortable that way."

"It...was warmer last night," she answered, not quite meeting his eyes. "And I slept a lot better than the night before."

Taking that as a wish to cudd...er...share body heat again, Jaune unzipped his bag and laid it out on the ground. Ruby opened hers and set it on top, and the two zipped the bags together, without actually looking at each other. Trying to make this less weird, he pulled off his armor and boots, pulled his hoodie off and bunched it up for a pillow. He crawled into his side of the nest, keeping to his side of the imaginary line he had drawn down the center. This time, he lay on his stomach, with his face pointed away from her. By the vibrations through the bags, he felt her slip into her side.

For a few moments, he wished to any power that could hear him that things wouldn't be complicated; that he could just drift off and sleep without his stupid brain pointing out that his friend had become...desirable. At first, it seemed fine, since Ruby settled in fairly quickly and seemed to drift off. It wasn't exactly toasty warm, but it was tolerable in the bag.

For him.

With Ruby's aura down, she must have started to feel chilly. The slithering sound of a body sliding across cloth and the slight tugging on the bags' fabric provided him a little warning before her back pressed up against his side. This time, her firm and shapely rear end came to rest against his waist.

What was with his infatuation with Ruby's butt? She was living a strenuous life; so of course her legs and glutes were firm and shapely. He was a functioning male and he wasn't blind; Yang, Weiss, Blake and Nora were the same way. Heck, after lugging his armor across two continents and now working on a third, his own keyster was probably pretty solid...although he wasn't about to grope and check just now. What kind of idiot was he that he couldn't handle Ruby's butt being in close proximity without getting...interested?

She slid in closer, setting her rolled up hood on his arm and then resting her head on it. Her back was against his ribs and her foot slid up his leg to come to rest on his thigh.

What was wrong with him? She was cold, that was all! Even if she was into him, which she wasn't...and even if he was into her, which he wasn't, the feel of her foot on the back of his leg wasn't supposed to be stimulating! The feel of her hair brushing the back of his neck wasn't supposed to make him quiver! What kind of hormone-driven idiot was he turning into? He stifled a sigh and gritted his teeth, determined to remain motionless until sleep claimed him.

Sleep didn't come quickly, but when it did, it was deep and restful.

Again, his internal alarm clock woke him in the predawn dimness. He was warm; very warm and very content to lie here. His eyes flew wide when he realized why.

During the night, Ruby had crawled almost completely on top of him! Her hands rested on his forearms, under his hoodie and her warm breath sent shivers down his neck every time she exhaled. She was straddling him! Thank the dust he had settled in to sleep on his stomach, or his reaction could have been...embarrassing.

Thank the dust he hadn't eaten anything that could have given him a case of gas, or it would have been even more embarrassing!

 _Get a grip! You're just a warm mattress to her! Body weight squeezes the air out of the material underneath you, making it less insulating. She got cold, put your warm body between her and the cold ground, and made as much contact with you as she could to share warmth. That's all there is to it, simple thermal regulation!_

His mind still fogged with sleep, he set about trying to disentangle himself from the warm, comfortable...breathing blanket that was on top of him. He managed to free one hand and unzip the bag, but as soon as he started to edge out from underneath her, Ruby made a very discontented noise and clung to him even tighter.

This wasn't good! They had a mission to accomplish...so they could accomplish another mission! The world was riding on them getting the job done and right now, he _really_ didn't want to crawl out of the sleeping bag. He tried again, hoping that he could slip out so that he wouldn't have to wake up Ruby in an...embarrassing...situation; but every time he tried to get away from her, she clung to him even tighter.

She must have been very cold.

"Ruby!" He whispered. "Ruby, it's time to get up!"

"Huh?" In a way, it was comforting to know that she could wake up as slowly and slack-witted as him.

Her glowing, silver eyes cracked open and a confused expression found its way onto her face. A moment later, she blushed and slithered off of him.

 _Great going Arc, now she's humiliated._

"It's just before dawn," he told her. "I'll get the breakfast fire going."

"Right," she answered, although she kept her gaze away from him.

Not knowing how to address the awkward moment, and with nothing else to do, he pulled on his boots, hoodie and armor, and left the tent to start the day.

He did note that she quickly found her way back to the warm spot in the conjoined sleeping bags.

Again, routine came to the rescue; cooking breakfast, cleaning the dishes and then breaking camp kept his mind off of the very uncomfortable feelings he was starting to get towards his friend...at least for the most part. Then, it was time to hit the trail once again. After an hour or two of hiking, the two felt comfortable enough to start talking again, although not about the awkward situation this morning. He had just gotten up his courage to mention it when they spotted smoke rising ahead of them.

"That's roughly where the next mining site we want to check out is at," Ruby noted. Jaune could only nod his agreement. The mission took over his thinking, pushing the events of the previous nights out of his mind. They worked their way up the mountainside so they could approach the site from above. Keeping concealed, they observed a crude bandit encampment for a couple of hours, getting an idea of how many were present and what they were doing. In the early afternoon, they crept away and set their course towards the nearest of the wildcat mines.

They had spent a great deal of time observing the bandits, so they weren't able to get far enough away from the bandit camp to feel comfortable lighting a cookfire. Dinner consisted of a few bites of jerky washed down with cold water. Without hot food to bolster them, there was no question about connecting their bags for sleep. He was very cold, and she was shivering when they crawled into their nest. There was no thought to the awkwardness as he pulled her close and spooned up behind her. She displayed no nervous or shocked reaction; she merely shimmied deeper into his embrace.

He grew warmer and her shivers stilled; yet there was no thought of releasing her and she clearly didn't want him to. She grabbed his hand and held it to her chest, as if it were Zwei or maybe her plush ursa, Mr. Growls. Jaune could only smile as her breathing grew deeper and regular, signaling that she had drifted into a comfortable sleep. He forced himself to remember that despite the fact that she was a much stronger fighter than him, she was still younger. She hadn't spent any real time away from home before attending Beacon, and that had led to a series of horrors and trials that nobody her age should have to endure.

She was the one that mattered; the silver-eyed warrior who was so capable that Ozpin himself enrolled her at Beacon two years early. She was the one who could become even more capable than her uncle. If he could offer his body heat on a cold night, no matter what effect it was having on him, so be it! If he could offer her familial comfort when she was shook up, he would. That's what friends did.

Besides, if they pushed hard tomorrow, they could reach the wildcat mine. Once there, in the warmer altitudes and with at least a little bit of shelter, it would be warm enough to sleep in their separate bags. He would miss having her pressed up against him, but it was better to make it stop as soon as possible, before he became addicted to it.

His internal alarm clock failed him the next morning; it was actually his scroll's alarm that woke the two shortly before dawn. It was awkward waking up like this, but he had accepted the awkwardness. Ruby seemed to have accepted it, as well. There was no blushing, so scramble to get away from him. Just a comfortable squeeze of his hand before unzipping their nest and emerging to the cold dark of the new day that was about to begin.

They were still too close to risk starting a cookfire, so breaking camp was quick. After that, a few bites of cold jerky and some shockingly cold water and they were on their way, with false dawn just coloring the eastern horizon.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Jaune asked her, as a way of starting a conversation. She just gave him an odd look.

"I mean, with the bandits," he clarified. "We've scouted out their base and their numbers. When we get back to the mine, we'll deliver the report and our mission will be finished. What do you think the syndicate is going to do about it?"

"They'll probably raid the place and clear it out," Ruby answered, after a few moments' thought. "They may even hire us to be part of the raid."

"Will that bother you?" He asked. "I mean, it would mean taking a job from a crime syndicate to attack bandits."

"It would have bothered me when I first started Beacon," she answered. "I thought that all criminals were wrong, but the syndicate is just trying to survive with what they have in Mantle. They're not exactly good people, but they're better than the bandits that are raiding the active mines. I guess I've learned that you sometimes change your mind. People who you've put in a certain category don't always stay there."

At roughly midday, they decided that they were far enough away from the bandit camp that they could risk a short fire. It wasn't the best meal that they had ever prepared, but it was hot and filling. Charged up with some hot food in their stomachs, they continued their trek through the afternoon and early evening, arriving at their goal as the last daylight faded away in the west.

They were spotted before they reached the settlement. The miners were mainly faunus, and the sharper faunus eyes meant that a watchman caught sight of them. A half-dozen burly men and women, bearing a couple of shoddy guns and numerous well-maintained mining implements suddenly emerged from the scrub forest and surrounded them. It was tense for a few minutes, but the crime syndicate was efficient. The miners knew that a tall, blonde human and a short, dark-haired human were out scouting the bandits and had one of their number lead the two into the town proper.

The headman was a badger faunus who wasn't terribly fond of humans, but he wasn't about to cross anyone the syndicate had hired. The fact that they had located the bandit camp prompted him to show a little more than the minimum level of courtesy. He passed their report on to his boss and let them stay in a spare shack.

The building was small and drafty, but it had a good woodstove and an ample supply of firewood. They were able to prepare a meal, heat enough water for bathing and still keep the shack heated to a temperature that would have seemed chilly just a couple of days ago, but now felt downright balmy. It was late at night, but being clean and fed made it worth it, when they unrolled their sleeping bags on the floor.

Jaune struggled to sleep. As much as sharing a nest with Ruby for the last three nights had been discomfiting, he missed the warm body pressed up against his.

" _It's just as well we ended it when we did,_ " he decided.

"Jaune?" Ruby's voice interrupted his thoughts, as he rolled over yet again.

"Wha? Sorry if I'm keeping you awake."

"No," her voice sounded pensive. "I couldn't sleep either. Do you want to zip the bags together again?"

 _Yes!_

"I...don't think that's a good idea," he admitted.

"Why?"

 _Oh boy..._

He took a couple of deep breaths. _It's best to be honest_.

"When we were close to each other, I...I had trouble remembering that we were friends," he managed to answer. "I mean, I had trouble remembering that we were just friends."

Silence.

"D-do you mean you were feeling...romantic?" Jaune swore he could _hear_ the blush in her voice.

"Er...that might not be the right word," he protested. "B-but...I was very much aware that you are a fit and pretty young woman."

There, he had said it. The horrible secret was out, for better or worse.

Probably worse.

The floorboards creaked, announcing that she was moving. He looked over at her, seeing her sitting up and looking at him. In the faint firelight, he could only see her form, not her expression.

"I'd still like to zip the bags together," she finally told him.

"But...doesn't it bother you, knowing that I was getting...aroused?" He asked.

Her head shook gently.

"Do you really think you were the only one?"


End file.
